After finishing a test involving a spray, the orphans head to their various spots and spend the evening, eating while communicating via the network, a system that allows them to talk to one another without the marshals knowing as the institute forbids direct contact, believing it could be lead to friendships and eventually a revolt.

Ziplock is electrocuted and dies but Cosmo survives, albeit with multiple critical injuries, including several broken bones and a heart which begins to shut down.

Cosmo wakes up in a warehouse to find his injuries being mended, including a cast on his leg and a steel plate in his head to heal his fractured skull.

However, one of the cars is a prototype stolen from Myishi Corporation, who track it down and send a squad of paralegals ("hit lawyers") to take it back.

However, due to an extremely long wait time to get a space on the Satellite, they take an illegal spaceship up to do the scan themselves and find that the hive is under Clarissa Frayne.

Although the bomb doesn't kill any humans, it shorts out the building's security, allowing the orphans to leave after Cosmo has revealed himself, noting this is the only chance they'll get to make a clean break.

After provoking and distracting her, Stefan uses some of his remaining strength to grab onto Faustino in a dead man's grip, and when the sniper attempts to shoot him again he lets his knees buckle, causing the bullet to miss him and break the Parasites' containment cell.

The book ends with the rest of the Supernaturalists getting ready to fight unspecified "other supernatural creatures", and the mayor of Satellite City, Ray Chase sends Faustino to Antarctica to continue working on a nuclear plant.

The book received a graphic novel adaptation, published July 10, 2012[1] In a September 29, 2007 interview, Eoin Colfer released a rough idea for the plot of the sequel, working title, "Avernus".

[2] When asked about ideas for a Supernaturalist sequel, he answers, "Well, the main idea is, well, at the end of book one, Stefan dies, but, being that they can see supernatural beings, in the second book, Stefan appears to Cosmo and tells him that they're all stuck in Limbo and can't get through to the afterlife, because something terrible is happening there, so it's an environmental thing as usual that's blocking the passageway to... forever, so they have to take care of that.